How soon we forget! Children are taught
in first grade that Vitamin D is the "sunshine
vitamin." Vitamin D is a steroid hormone
and is synthesized in one's body after skin
is exposed to sunlight. Once the body has
made enough, it will produce no more.
Too much Vitamin D can be toxic and
lead to bone loss.

"Exposure to sunlight provides most humans
with their vitamin D requirement."

Journal of Nutrition 1996;126(4 Suppl)

"Adults need 10-15 minutes of sunlight, two
or three times a week to ensure proper
Vitamin D levels."

Journal of Pediatrics, 1985; 107 (3)

"Consuming as little as 45 micrograms of
Vitamin D-3 in young children has resulted
in signs of overdose." (one quart of milk
contains 400 IU, or 10 micrograms)."

Pediatrics, 1963; 31

"Testing of 42 milk samples found only 12%
within the expected range of Vitamin D
content. Testing of 10 samples of infant
formula revealed seven with more that twice
the Vitamin D content reported on the label,
one of which had more than four times the
label amount. Vitamin D is toxic in overdose."

New England Journal of Medicine, 1992, 326

"Vitamin D increases aluminum absorption,
and high aluminum levels in the body may
cause an Alzheimer's-like disease."

"To investigate whether greater intakes of
calcium, vitamin D, or milk products may
protect against ischemic heart disease mortality,
data from a prospective cohort study of 34,486
postmenopausal Iowa women were analyzed...
results suggest that a higher intake of calcium,
but not of vitamin D or milk products, is
associated with reduced ischemic heart disease
mortality in postmenopausal women."

Am J Epidemiol, 1999 Jan, 149:2

"It has since been discovered that the
Vitamin D necessary to absorb the calcium
moving down the intestine must already have
been in the bloodstream for a while; what is
present with that calcium (in milk) is useless
at that stage. Vitamin D is part of the
mechanism to break bone down so that it
can then stretch and grow. Thus an overdose
of D can eventually lead to osteoporosis."

Vegetarian and Vegan Nutrition, by George
Eisman, M.A., M.Sc., R.D.

How soon we forget! Children are taught in first grade that Vitamin D is
the "sunshine vitamin." Vitamin D is a steroid hormone and is synthesized
in one's body after skin is exposed to sunlight. Once the body has made
enough, it will produce no more. Too much Vitamin D can be toxic and lead to
bone loss.